Iran faces a double crisis amid a currency devaluation and the loss of a key regional ally

A suitcase filled with Iranian rial banknotes is on display at a foreign exchange market on Ferdowsi street in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Jan. 6, 2018.

Ali Mohammadi | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Iran is facing its worst set of crises in years, grappling with a surging economy along with a series of unprecedented geopolitical and military blows to its power in the Middle East.

Over the weekend, Iran's currency, the rial, hit a record low of 756,000 to the dollar, according to Reuters. Since September, the struggling currency has suffered the effects of devastating successes for Iran's proxies, including Lebanon's Hezbollah and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, as well as the November election of Donald Trump for the presidency of the United States.

With the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad amid a shock offensive by rebel groups, Tehran has lost its most important ally in the Middle East. Assad, who is accused of war crimes against his own people, fled to Russia and left a deeply broken country behind.

"The fall of Assad has existential implications for the Islamic Republic," Behnam ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington, told CNBC. "If we don't forget, the regime spent much more than a decade in treasure, blood, and reputation to save a regime that ultimately folded in less than two weeks."

The currency's fall exposes the extent of the suffering faced by ordinary Iranians, who struggle to afford everyday goods and suffer high inflation and unemployment after years of heavy Western sanctions exacerbated by domestic corruption and economic mismanagement bad

Trump has promised to take a hard line on Iran and will re-enter the White House about six years after he unilaterally pulled the United States out of the Iranian nuclear deal and reimposed heavy sanctions on the country.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian expressed his government's willingness to negotiate and revive the deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which lifted some sanctions on Iran in exchange for curbs on -its nuclear program. But the outreach effort comes at a time when the International Atomic Energy Agency says Tehran is enriching uranium at record levels, reaching 60% purity - a technical step short of the purity level of of arms of 90%.


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